jeudi 27 novembre 2014

Smith Commission falls short of devolution vow

Smith Commission falls short of devolution vow

by Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp (27/11/2014)

The Smith Commission report out today contains some positive measures that can be used by the Scottish Government to the betterment of Scotland. It is also true to say that it is the largest movement of power from Westminster to Scotland since the formation of the parliament, but it falls well short of the vow made by the leaders of three of the four main Westminster Unionist parties. It falls even further behind the promise of the No campaign’s official spokesperson Gordon Brown that Scotland would be as close as possible to a federal state within one or two years, or Danny Alexander who told us to expect “effective Home Rule”. Federalism and effective home rule it isn’t, but that hasn’t stopped The Times from screaming from its front page “Fears of a federal UK as Scots get new powers”.